Articles | Volume 15, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-2939-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-2939-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Sea ice thickness from air-coupled flexural waves
Department of Geosciences, University of Tromsø – The Arctic
University of Norway, 9037 Tromsø, Norway
Alfred Hanssen
Department of Geosciences, University of Tromsø – The Arctic
University of Norway, 9037 Tromsø, Norway
Bent Ole Ruud
Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, 5007 Bergen, Norway
Tor Arne Johansen
Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, 5007 Bergen, Norway
Department of Arctic Geology, The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), 9171 Longyearbyen, Norway
Related authors
Rowan Romeyn, Alfred Hanssen, and Andreas Köhler
The Cryosphere, 16, 2025–2050, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2025-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2025-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We have investigated a long-term record of ground vibrations, recorded by a seismic array installed in Adventdalen, Svalbard. This record contains a large number of
frost quakes, a type of ground shaking that can be produced by cracks that form as the ground cools rapidly. We use underground temperatures measured in a nearby borehole to model forces of thermal expansion and contraction that can cause these cracks. We also use the seismic measurements to estimate where these cracks occurred.
Rowan Romeyn, Alfred Hanssen, Bent Ole Ruud, Helene Meling Stemland, and Tor Arne Johansen
The Cryosphere, 15, 283–302, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-283-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-283-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
A series of unusual ground motion signatures were identified in geophone recordings at a frost polygon site in Adventdalen on Svalbard. By analysing where the ground motion originated in time and space, we are able to classify them as cryoseisms, also known as frost quakes, a ground-cracking phenomenon that occurs as a result of freezing processes. The waves travelling through the ground produced by these frost quakes also allow us to measure the structure of the permafrost in the near surface.
Knut Ola Dølven, Håvard Espenes, Alfred Hanssen, Muhammed Fatih Sert, Magnus Drivdal, Achim Randelhoff, and Bénédicte Ferré
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-998, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-998, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We have modelled how gas seeping from the seafloor spreads in the ocean and how much reaches the atmosphere. We estimate how much free gas dissolves in water, atmospheric release and 3-D concentration using data from a hydrodynamic model and gas loss modules. We applied the framework to a methane (CH4) seep site offshore Norway showing that atmospheric CH4 release is spread over a large area. However, with our assumptions, most of the CH4 (>90 %) is converted to CO2 by microbes.
Rowan Romeyn, Alfred Hanssen, and Andreas Köhler
The Cryosphere, 16, 2025–2050, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2025-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-2025-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We have investigated a long-term record of ground vibrations, recorded by a seismic array installed in Adventdalen, Svalbard. This record contains a large number of
frost quakes, a type of ground shaking that can be produced by cracks that form as the ground cools rapidly. We use underground temperatures measured in a nearby borehole to model forces of thermal expansion and contraction that can cause these cracks. We also use the seismic measurements to estimate where these cracks occurred.
Rowan Romeyn, Alfred Hanssen, Bent Ole Ruud, Helene Meling Stemland, and Tor Arne Johansen
The Cryosphere, 15, 283–302, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-283-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-283-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
A series of unusual ground motion signatures were identified in geophone recordings at a frost polygon site in Adventdalen on Svalbard. By analysing where the ground motion originated in time and space, we are able to classify them as cryoseisms, also known as frost quakes, a ground-cracking phenomenon that occurs as a result of freezing processes. The waves travelling through the ground produced by these frost quakes also allow us to measure the structure of the permafrost in the near surface.
Cited articles
Bhattacharya, M., Guy, R., and Crocker, M.: Coincidence effect with sound
waves in a finite plate, J. Sound Vibr., 18, 157–169, 1971.
Brower, N., Himberger, D., and Mayer, W.: Restrictions on the existence of
leaky Rayleigh waves, IEEE T. Son. Ultrason., 26,
306–307, 1979.
DiMarco, R., Dugan, J., Martin, W., and Tucker III, W.: Sea ice flexural
rigidity: a comparison of methods, Cold Reg. Sci. Technol., 21,
247–255, 1993.
Dinvay, E., Kalisch, H., and Părău, E.: Fully dispersive models for
moving loads on ice sheets, J. Fluid. Mech., 876, 122–149, 2019.
Ewing, M. and Crary, A.: Propagation of elastic waves in ice. Part II,
Physics, 5, 181–184, 1934.
Ewing, M. and Press, F.: Tide-gage disturbances from the great eruption of
Krakatoa, EOS T. Am. Geophys. Un., 36, 53–60, 1955.
Franke, S. J. and Swenson Jr., G.: A brief tutorial on the fast field program
(FFP) as applied to sound propagation in the air, Appl. Acoust., 27,
203–215, 1989.
Garrett, C.: A theory of the Krakatoa tide gauge disturbances, Tellus, 22,
43–52, 1970.
Greenhill, A.: Wave motion in hydrodynamics, Am. J.
Math., 1886, 62–96, 1886.
Greenhill, G.: I. Skating on thin ice, The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin
Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, 31, 1–22, 1916.
Griffin, J.: The Magic (and Math) of Skating on Thin Ice without Falling In,
Scientific American, available at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-magic-and-math-of-skating-on-thin-ice-without-falling-in/ (last access: 16 June 2020), 2018.
Haider, M. F. and Giurgiutiu, V.: Analysis of axis symmetric circular
crested elastic wave generated during crack propagation in a plate: A
Helmholtz potential technique, Int. J. Solids
Struct., 134, 130–150, 2018.
Hanssen, A.: Multidimensional multitaper spectral estimation, Signal
Process., 58, 327–332, 1997.
Harb, M. S. and Yuan, F.-G.: Air-coupled nondestructive evaluation
dissected, J. Nondestruct. Eval., 37, 1–19, 2018.
Harkrider, D. and Press, F.: The Krakatoa Air–Sea Waves: An Example of
Pulse Propagation in Coupled Systems, Geophys. J. Int., 13,
149–159, 1967.
Haskell, N. A.: A note on air-coupled surface waves, B.
Seismol. Soc. Am., 41, 295–300, 1951.
Hearn, E. J.: Chapter 7 – Circular Plates and Diaphragms, in: Mechanics of
Materials 2, 3rd Edn., edited by: Hearn, E. J., Butterworth-Heinemann,
Oxford, 1997.
Hinchey, M. and Colbourne, B.: Research on low and high speed hovercraft
icebreaking, Can. J. Civil Eng., 22, 32–42, 1995.
Hunkins, K.: Seismic studies of sea ice, J. Geophys. Res.,
65, 3459–3472, 1960.
Johansen, T. A., Ruud, B. O., Tømmerbakke, R., and Jensen, K.: Seismic on
floating ice: data acquisition versus flexural wave noise, Geophys.
Prospect., 67, 532–549, 2019.
Kashiwagi, M.: Transient responses of a VLFS during landing and take-off of
an airplane, J. Mar. Sci. Technol., 9, 14–23, 2004.
Kavanaugh, J., Schultz, R., Andriashek, L. D., van der Baan, M., Ghofrani,
H., Atkinson, G., and Utting, D. J.: A New Year's Day icebreaker: ice quakes
on lakes in Alberta, Canada, Can. J. Earth Sci., 56,
183–200, 2019.
Kiefer, D. A., Ponschab, M., Rupitsch, S. J., and Mayle, M.: Calculating the
full leaky Lamb wave spectrum with exact fluid interaction, J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 145, 3341–3350, 2019.
Kozin, V., Zemlyak, V., and Rogozhnikova, E.: Increasing the efficiency of
the resonance method for breaking an ice cover with simultaneous movement of
two air cushion vehicles, J. Appl. Mech. Tech.
Ph.+, 58, 349–353, 2017.
Kozin, V. M. and Pogorelova, A. V.: Submarine moving close to the
ice-surface conditions, Proceedings of the Eighteenth (2008) International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference, 6–11 July 2008, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 630–637, 2008.
Lundmark, G.: Skating on thin ice-And the acoustics of infinite plates,
INTER-NOISE and NOISE-CON Congress and Conference Proceedings, The Hague,
the Netherlands, 410–413, 2001.
Matiushina, A. A., Pogorelova, A. V., and Kozin, V. M.: Effect of impact
load on the ice cover during the landing of an airplane, Int.
J. Offshore Polar, 26, 6–12, 2016.
Miles, J. and Sneyd, A. D.: The response of a floating ice sheet to an
accelerating line load, J. Fluid Mech., 497, 435–439, 2003.
Moreau, L., Boué, P., Serripierri, A., Weiss, J., Hollis, D., Pondaven,
I., Vial, B., Garambois, S., Larose, É., and Helmstetter, A.: Sea ice
thickness and elastic properties from the analysis of multimodal guided wave
propagation measured with a passive seismic array, J. Geophys.
Res.-Oceans, 125, e2019JC015709, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015709, 2020a.
Moreau, L., Weiss, J., and Marsan, D.: Accurate estimations of sea-ice
thickness and elastic properties from seismic noise recorded with a minimal
number of geophones: from thin landfast ice to thick pack ice, J.
Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 125, e2020JC016492, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JC016492, 2020b.
Mozhaev, V. and Weihnacht, M.: Subsonic leaky Rayleigh waves at
liquid–solid interfaces, Ultrasonics, 40, 927–933, 2002.
Nickalls, R. W.: A new approach to solving the cubic: Cardan's solution
revealed, Math. Gaz., 77, 354–359, 1993.
Norwegian Meteorological Institute: Norsk Klimaservicesenter –
Observations and weather statistics, available at: https://seklima.met.no/ (last access: 14 December 2020), 2020.
Novoselov, A., Fuchs, F., and Bokelmann, G.: Acoustic-to-seismic ground
coupling: coupling efficiency and inferring near-surface properties,
Geophys. J. Int., 223, 144–160, 2020.
Nugroho, W. S., Wang, K., Hosking, R., and Milinazzo, F.: Time-dependent
response of a floating flexible plate to an impulsively started steadily
moving load, J. Fluid Mech., 381, 337–355, 1999.
Olinger, S., Lipovsky, B., Wiens, D., Aster, R., Bromirski, P., Chen, Z.,
Gerstoft, P., Nyblade, A. A., and Stephen, R.: Tidal and thermal stresses
drive seismicity along a major Ross Ice Shelf rift, Geophys. Res.
Lett., 46, 6644–6652, 2019.
Press, F. and Ewing, M.: Theory of air-coupled flexural waves, J.
Appl. Phys., 22, 892–899, 1951.
Press, F. and Oliver, J.: Model study of air-coupled surface waves,
J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 27, 43–46, 1955.
Press, F., Crary, A., Oliver, J., and Katz, S.: Air-coupled flexural waves
in floating ice, EOS T. Am. Geophys. Un., 32, 166–172,
1951.
Rankin, A.: How Skating on Thin Ice Creates Laser-Like Sounds, short film, National Geographic, available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/skating-thin-black-ice-creates-sound-nordic-spd (last access: 23 June 2021), 2018.
Renji, K., Nair, P., and Narayanan, S.: Critical and coincidence frequencies
of flat panels, J. Sound Vibr., 205, 19–32, 1997.
Ruzhich, V., Psakhie, S. G., Chernykh, E., Bornyakov, S., and Granin, N.:
Deformation and seismic effects in the ice cover of Lake Baikal, Russ.
Geol. Geophys.+, 50, 214–221, 2009.
Sandven, S., Hansen, R. K., Eknes, E., Kvingedal, B., Bruserud, K., Nilsen,
F., Wåhlin, J., Sagen, H., and Kloster, K.: NERSC Technical Report no.
294, Nansen Environmental Remote Sensing Center, Bergen, Norway, 2010.
Schulkes, R. M. S. M. and Sneyd, A. D.: Time-dependent response of floating
ice to a steadily moving load, J. Fluid Mech., 186, 25–46, 1988.
Skarðhamar, J. and Svendsen, H.: Short-term hydrographic variability in
a stratified Arctic fjord, Geol. Soc. Lond. Spec. Publ.,
344, 51–60, 2010.
Squire, V., Robinson, W., Langhorne, P., and Haskell, T.: Vehicles and
aircraft on floating ice, Nature, 333, 159–161, 1988.
Squire, V., Hosking, R. J., Kerr, A. D., and Langhorne, P.: Moving Loads on
Ice Plates, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, the Netherlands, 1996.
Sutherland, G. and Rabault, J.: Observations of wave dispersion and
attenuation in landfast ice, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 121,
1984–1997, 2016.
Takizawa, T.: Response of a floating sea ice sheet to a steadily moving
load, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 93, 5100–5112, 1988.
Thomson, D. J.: Spectrum estimation and harmonic analysis, P. IEEE, 70, 1055–1096, 1982.
Timco, G. and Frederking, R.: A review of sea ice density, Cold Reg.
Sci. Technol., 24, 1–6, 1996.
Timco, G. W. and Weeks, W. F.: A review of the engineering properties of sea
ice, Cold Reg. Sci. Technol., 60, 107–129, 2010.
Van der Sanden, J. and Short, N.: Radar satellites measure ice cover
displacements induced by moving vehicles, Cold Reg. Sci.
Technol., 133, 56–62, 2017.
Wadhams, P., Wilkinson, J. P., and McPhail, S.: A new view of the underside
of Arctic sea ice, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L04501, https://doi.org/10.1029/2005GL025131, 2006.
Wang, K., Hosking, R., and Milinazzo, F.: Time-dependent response of a
floating viscoelastic plate to an impulsively started moving load, J. Fluid
Mech., 521, 295–317, https://doi.org/10.1017/S002211200400179X, 2004.
Wilson, J. T.: Coupling between moving loads and flexural waves in floating
ice sheets, U.S. Army Snow, Ice, and Permafrost Research Establishment,
SIPRE technical report no. 34, Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army, Wilmette, Illinois, USA, 1955.
Yang, T. C. and Yates, T. W.: Flexural waves in a floating ice sheet:
Modeling and comparison with data, J. Acoust. Soc.
Am., 97, 971–977, 1995.
Yeung, R. and Kim, J.: Effects of a Translating Load on a Floating
Plate – Structural Drag and Plate Deformation, J. Fluid.
Struct., 14, 993–1011, 2000.
Yilmaz, Ö.: Seismic data analysis: Processing, inversion, and
interpretation of seismic data, Society of exploration geophysicists, 2nd Edn., 938–942, 2001.
Zhu, J.: Non-contact NDT of concrete structures using air coupled sensors,
Newmark Structural Engineering Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana,
Report No. NSEL-010, 2008.
Short summary
Air-coupled flexural waves are produced by the interaction between pressure waves in air and bending waves in a floating ice sheet. The frequency of these waves is related to the physical properties of the ice sheet, specifically its thickness and rigidity. We demonstrate the usefulness of air-coupled flexural waves for estimating ice thickness and give a theoretical description of the governing physics that highlights their similarity to related phenomena in other fields.
Air-coupled flexural waves are produced by the interaction between pressure waves in air and...